My favorite vintage inspired Christmas decorations

Every year when stores put out their Christmas decorations I immediately start hunting for things that could be mistaken for '50s/'60s vintage. It's usually cheaper than actually buying vintage ornaments or decorations on Etsy or Ebay, and you can buy multiples of something that you really love instead of only finding one.

I thought I'd do a little round-up of my favorite vintage-inspired decorations that I have on display this year! First up is this little bird ornament that I found at Target! It's available online here.



This matching deer doesn't appear to be for sale online, but I found her in the same section as the bird at my local Target. I actually got a few of these exact same deer last year, too, so hopefully this is something they'll be bringing back every year now!



This little ski lift ornament is also from Target this year (but not available online.) I love hanging ornaments around the house off of the tree to add little bits of Christmas everywhere :)



I picked up several of these cute little felt deer! They look so vintagey and cute! These are also from Target and they're available online here.



This picture doesn't do these ornaments justice. They're mini ornaments inspired by the vintage glass ornaments that I love so much from the '50s and '60s! They're from Anthropologie and they might be my absolute favorite looks-vintage-but-isn't-vintage decoration that I have. Last year I made Arrietty a mini tree to match mine and filled it with these ornaments. They're available again this year online right here.



I LOVE these lighted trees and I'm so excited that I found one in a petite size this year. I got mine at Target (not available online - come on, Target! argh!) but it is available on amazon right here.



This little Santa is one of my favorite Disney souvenirs! I bought it in the Germany pavilion at Epcot several years ago and whenever I break out my Christmas decorations this always takes me back to Disney :)



I found these vintage inspired putz houses at Home Goods a couple years back! They came in a big set with half a dozen houses, and I also got a large house to match. They're not online but here is a similar one.



This started out as a light-up Santa face that I found at Cracker Barrel, but after a few years the lighting part detached from the back and so I just turned it into a non-light-up Santa face. I painted the inside white so that it wouldn't be transparent anymore. I've always loved vintage blow mold decorations so I was so excited when I found this one! I can't seem to find it online but maybe Cracker Barrel is still selling it in store.



Last but not least, I got these ADORABLE Mr. and Mrs. Claus pull-string ornaments from Target this year. Aren't they the cutest!? Again, they're not online, but I only purchased them last week so hopefully Target still has them in store :)

Decorating for Christmas

Remember ages ago when I said I was starting a youtube channel? I FINALLY posted a video! :)

I really have the Christmas bug this year, so I decided to just decorate super early. I know a lot of people get annoyed by "the Christmas creep" but personally I've always loved celebrating it as early as possible. But I totally get it if you're someone who's bothered by pre-Thanksgiving holiday festivities, so just bookmark this post and come back early next month if you'd prefer to hold off on Christmas stuff until December ;)

I'm really happy with how this turned out, but I have to say I majorly suck at continuity. I have not one, not two, but three inexplicable outfit changes in this video even though I decorated my whole place in one afternoon. First I put on a sweater, then I realized I was too hot. So I put on a lace dress. Then I decided to shoot footage of me on a ladder hanging up lights and realized the lace dress was way too short for that shot, so I switched to a long sleeve red dress. But all of those clips are interspersed in the video so it looks like I just kept changing clothes all afternoon lol!

Anyway... hopefully this will be the start of semi-consistent posting. I really enjoyed filming and editing this and I'm really looking forward to shooting more in the future! :)

christmas in july

I'm having a little christmas in july sale in my flapper doodle shop (50% off any order over $20 if you're interested! Just use code christmasinjuly) Anyway! I was looking for a Christmas-y photo to use on instagram to mention the sale and I stumbled on a bunch of pictures that I took for a Christmas apartment tour last December! I can't believe I never got around to posting these! I wasn't 100% smitten with how I decorated my apartment (kitchen excluded - loved that!) but I really liked how I decorated for the holidays :)

So, this is half a year late but it's Christmas in July so maybe it's right on time? :) Here are some snapshots from my apartment last winter! I think my absolute favorite decoration is the little hat-and-scarf set I put on my Dwight bobblehead. It was actually a wine bottle decoration that I got at the craft store, but it's a perfect fit for the bobblehead! :D

DIY giant tissue paper heart

This particular wall in my apartment has been causing me headaches ever since I moved in. I painted it white so I'd have a plain backdrop to use whenever I needed one (mostly for etsy product photos) but I still wanted something hanging there in the mean time. It had to be light and easy to remove whenever I needed the plain wall, but large enough to fill up the space.

First I bought a huge projector screen and did a painting on it, thinking I could easily roll it up when it had to be out of the way. But the paint made it difficult to roll up and the big black bar at the top drove me nuts. Then I bought a lightweight cotton tapestry and stretched it on a wooden frame. It was way too dark and busy for the space, so that didn't work either.

Finally I remembered seeing this project on Bri Emery's instagram. I love the way the heart looks but I wanted to make a wall-hanging version without the frame and chicken wire. I LOVE how it came out! It was probably the most time intensive DIY project I've ever worked on but it was definitely worth it.



Materials: Assuming you want a giant heart, Elmer's makes really massive foam board sheets. I got mine at Staples for (I think) $7 each. They're seriously huge. (see board-to-Hubble size comparison above) If you want to make smaller hearts (maybe as Valentine's Day decorations!) you can get smaller foam board at the dollar store or any craft store, or even just use cardboard. You also need Elmer's glue (I needed two bottles to fill the entire heart) tissue paper in the color of your choice (I used about 75 sheets. They came 5 per pack at the dollar store) cut into squares about 2" x 2" and a pencil.

Step 1 - Draw half of a heart onto one piece of your foam board. Cut it out using an x-acto knife (it doesn't have to be too smooth because the tissue paper will cover the edges) and then trace the half-heart onto your other sheet of foam board. Cut out that half.



Step 2 - Line up the two halves and tape them together with clear packing tape or duct tape. Tape both sides.

Step 3 - Cut a rectangle out of your foam board scraps and tape it to the back seam of the heart. This helps keep the heart sturdy, so it won't bend in the middle.

Step 4 -Pour some glue onto a paper plate. Take 2 pieces of tissue paper and wrap them over the top of your pencil. Dip the pencil into Elmer's glue and then adhere it to the foam board. It's the same method you probably used for art projects in kindergarten except instead of one class period this will take hours and hours and hour. But it's fun, I promise.

I used two pieces of tissue paper at a time because I was finding it filled up the heart quicker and the glue wasn't sticking to my pencil eraser. I started out using one piece at a time and pretty much every piece stuck to the pencil.

Once everything is dry you'll probably notice that the heart is incredibly warped. Just flip it over and paint a thick layer of Elmer's glue on the back and let it dry -- that will snap it flat again. To attach it to my wall I screwed a sawtooth hanger to the back and hung it on a single nail. It's incredibly lightweight so it doesn't need much help staying on the wall and it'll be SO easy to take it on-and-off whenever I need to.



I think this would also be cute for a handmade wedding decoration or a photobooth backdrop! Also, like I said, tiny versions sprinkled around the house for valentine's day would be so cute (and less time intensive lol)

DIY Cracker Barrel inspired centerpiece

After I set up my dining room table I spent way more time than I'd like to admit mulling over possible centerpieces. I didn't want to do anything conventional like candles or flowers, but I couldn't really think of anything else. Then I went out for dinner at Cracker Barrel with my family and as we passed around that little peg game while we were waiting for our food this idea came to me!

I got a vintage tray on etsy (scalloped border!!) and filled it with fun games (a Rubik's cube, a deck of cards and a magic 8 ball) as well as restaurant table condiments like sugar packets and salt and pepper shakers. I also added a little bowl of candy and, well, I went with some flowers after all. It just needed some height and they look so pretty! ;)

I got the pea pod shakers and sugar packet container from amazon, and all the games were from K-Mart. I love that whenever I have guests they can fiddle around with the toys while I'm finishing up in the kitchen, or munch on some candy if we're just hanging out around the table. Since it's on a tray it's easy to move it when I want to bring out food... and in addition to being functional, it does make for a pretty (and fun!) centerpiece!

christmas, take two

I've done a bit more Christmas decorating since my last Christmas post -- not a huge amount but I love the little additions and wanted to share some new pictures! I loved how my tree looked bare, but I love it even more with some mini tinsel and a mid-century style star (both from target) I originally wanted to add ornaments instead but I think I love the tinsel even more!



I got these adorable flocked vintage Christmas mice on etsy! I'd love to add more vintage decorations to my collection. I'm also working on a vintage-style caroler after seeing Danielle's angel in this post. I have the doll head and the paper cone, I just need to find the time to put her all together lol :)

Also the art in the background is from an It's a Small World postcard set I got on vacation last month! Mary Blair stuff can be hard to find, so if you can't make it to Disney World or Disneyland, I also found them on amazon here.



I'm at Michaels (the craft store) almost every day, it seems, but I still spend at least 20 minutes scouring the shelves for something I might have missed on a previous trip. Last week I found these candy canes. I threw away the box so I don't remember what flavor they are (I'm thinking either skittles or smarties?) but they're so pretty and pastel, I just had to hang them up! I alternated them with these pretty snowflake ornaments I got at Target. I don't know if you can tell from the photo but they look like iced gingerbread cookies! They're adorable!



Lastly, I got a little pink Christmas tree for my dresser! I actually bought it thinking I'd put it in storage for when I eventually have more room (it's the perfect grapefruit-y shade of pink, and it was 50% off, so that's when my "buy it even if you need to put it in storage for now" thoughts kick in) but once I realized it would fit on my dresser I just couldn't put it away! And I made a makeshift star from an enamel brooch :)

Oh, I also got some miniature wooden nutcrackers from the dollar store and painted them to match my room, but I forgot to take pictures! I'll sneak them into an outfit post sometime this week ;)

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

I'm finally starting to recover from the cold from hell. I can't believe I've been really sick twice already and it isn't even officially winter yet. yikes! I'm loading up on vitamin c and hoping I can stay healthy for a while. To lift my spirits I started decking my room out for Christmas! I spend so much time in here, it's nice to be surrounded with holiday decorations to make me feel some Christmas cheer while I work!



I got this purple tree at Michaels this year. It's so beautiful, and I'd never seen a purple tree before... and I had a 50% off coupon, so bringing it home was a no-brainer! ;) Now I just need to find some tiny pastel ornaments to finish it off! I haven't been to Target yet since they put out their Christmas decorations so I'm hoping maybe they'll have something that will work. If I can't find anything there I might just DIY some!



My beloved white shelf actually broke last week, so I had to buy a new one :( It's almost exactly the same but the layout of the shelves is different from my old one, with a giant display space in the middle. At first I was a bit disappointed because I liked the old layout so much but I'm starting to really love this. I think I might make my own putz village to display there each Christmas! In the meantime though I just made a little Christmas light garland from craft store bulbs and embroidery thread!




In Disney I picked up three of these Santa hat ornaments, hoping desperately that they'd fit on my bobble heads when I got home, and they do!!! Hands down my favorite decoration in my bedroom.



I got this little tree at Target last year, along with the tree topper and the snow girl under my lamp. The gnome figurine was another Disney purchase, in Epcot Germany. And every year I switch out my "pink champagne for dancing" record that I normally have on display for my Bing Crosby Christmas record :)



I saw these lollipops at Michaels and knew they would be perfect for my ikea cabinet! I'm really tempted to keep them up all year long, or at least find something similar since that big white space sometimes drives me crazy. Must. Have. Clutter. Everywhere. At. All. Times. ;p



Finally I put some snowflakes and lollipops on my string hanging thing (what is it called?) and switched out an embroidery for a vintage plastic santa head :)

I only started decorating my room about two years ago so my assortment of Christmas decorations is pretty sparse but I like that I'm starting to build my own collection!